Letter: When will GOP lawmakers show spine?

President Donald Trump pauses during the State of the Union address in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol to a joint session of Congress Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018 in Washington.(Photo: Win McNamee, AP)

Aside from President Trump leading them around by their collective noses, what happened to congressional Republicans’ core beliefs? Budget hawks, gone. Catering to the religious right, Trump’s bad behavior, no problem. Staunch aggressive actions against Russia, not so much. Making sure the Constitution is followed, starting with the violation of the emoluments clause, certainly not. Defenders of our institutions, definitely not. The list goes on and on.

Operating behind closed doors, without inviting Democrats to participate, Republicans tried to kill the Affordable Care Act in two weeks, but the replacement was so awful that they couldn’t get it done. They used the same strategy for the tax cut bill, which gave a huge gift to the top earners at the expense of those in the bottom. Is that what Republican lawmakers were elected to do? As for the increase in the stock market, Wall Street bought into a tax cut after Trump won in 2016, by pushing up stock prices.

Know this: If a company has the same income as the previous year, but expenses are reduced based on paying lower taxes, earnings go up and so do stock prices. Yes, people are focused on a shiny object, the $1,000-$2,000 in a tax cut people receive, not the increase in taxes that is coming and the increase in health insurance costs that will quickly eat up the reduction in taxes.

Finally, Republicans accept Trump’s denial of Russian influence in the 2016 presidential election. With all of the interactions between Trump’s inner circle and Russians that those in Trump’s circle have lied about, where is the GOP’s spine? If a Democratic president did 10 percent of what Trump has done, they would be run out on a rail by these Republicans now looking the other way.

Trump views his presidency as an opportunity to increase his wealth, and his enablers in Congress continue to let this happen. Judgment day is coming in 2018. Rather than face primaries and an angry electorate, a growing number of congressional Republicans are fleeing the Trump ship, and for good reasons. Despite Trump’s denials, there is clear collusion. It’s not only with Russians, it’s between Congress and Trump. Congressional Republicans, have you no shame?